Free Republic

Arguments over same-sex marriage played out in the U.S. Supreme Courton Tuesday, but many religious groups opposed to gay marriage aren’t waiting for a ruling. A court ruling expected two months from now could sanction same-sex marriage nationwide. In anticipation, some congregations and religious advocacy groups are re-emphasizing their teachings on marriage, fine-tuning their approach to gays and lesbians and bracing for legal battles and public criticism. “The outcome of this decision will shape the landscape of the church’s ministry in the U.S. for generations to come,” wrote Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the...

Christians and followers of other religions in China suffered the worst abuses in a decade last year as part of a state-sponsored crackdown on dissent, according to a Christian human rights group.The organization China Aid said the persecution of religious practitioners and human rights advocates in China increased by more than 150 percent last year.According to its annual report released on Tuesday, 17,884 individuals were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Authorities detained nearly 3,000 dissidents and sentenced 1,274 people, compared to just 12 in 2013.President Xi Jinping of China, widely viewed as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) most authoritarian leader...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)supports real marriage. He is opposed by gay rights activists who are more and more showing themselves to be little despots. Cruz spoke at the home of Ian Reisner who is both gay and supports homosexual marriage. The gaystapo has decreed that Mr. Reisner’s businesses must be boycotted. He dared to associate with a conservative. Consequently, Mr. Reisner, to protect his business interests in New York, has been forced to apologize for having an untouchable in his home. The totalitarianism of the gay rights movement is on display more and more. A pizza restauranteur doesn’t want to...

Amid the cross-country race to election 2016, the secular left’s utter disdain for both our Creator Christ and His faithful followers is fast approaching critical mass. Self-styled “progressives” – that is, America’s cultural Marxist agents of ruin – typically disguise their designs on despotism in the flowery and euphemistic language of “reproductive health,” “anti-discrimination” and “multiculturalism.” We see this Orwellian newspeak at play right now in Washington, D.C., where congressional Republicans endeavor to prevent, if only timorously, two unconstitutional pieces of legislation from taking effect. The first, the District of Columbia’s so-called “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act,” would force pro-life groups,...

In all the daily conflict we see between progressive liberal activists, secular humanists, atheists, gay activists, and radical Muslims versus Christians—I am speaking to Christians—as followers of Christ, we must always be mindful of our marching orders, and from whom those marching orders come. Do not rejoice at our victories, and do not despair at our defeats.  The culture war isn't about you anyway. It’s about the souls of those who are perishing. Persecution in all forms will come to us as Christians.  Jesus said it would happen. Speaking to His disciples, Jesus said in John 16:32, “A time is...

A new spirit of intolerance has arisen on the Johns Hopkins University campus, and conservative Christians are the targets. The JHU student government’s vote this week to ban any hypothetical future Chick-fil-A outlet from campus because of the company owner’s support for traditional marriage, coming on the heels of the JHU Spring Fair’s censorship of a pro-life fetal-model display as “disturbing” and “triggering,” sends a clear message that students who disagree with liberal orthodoxy are not welcome on the Hopkins campus. The student government’s vote went beyond merely expressing support for same-sex marriage. The Chick-fil-A ban seeks to introduce unprecedented...

Former Lesbian: Ministries That Help People Leave Homosexuality Could Soon Become Illegal April 24, 2015 By Melanie Hunter Janet Boynes, the author of “Called Out” and founder of Janet Boynes Ministries, told the C-SPAN audience on Friday that soon ministries like hers, which help people exit homosexuality, will become illegal thanks to the efforts of the homosexual lobby. “Those who seek help to leave the life of homosexuality may soon discover that there is no longer any help out there,” she said. “Homosexual activists and their homosexual attorneys are pushing to ban any type of ministries such as Janet Boynes...

NEW YORK — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a feminist tone on Thursday. She told attendees at the sixth annual Women in The World Summit that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” for the sake of giving women access to “reproductive health care and safe childbirth.” “Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper,” Clinton said.

The United States Supreme Court may soon liberate the biblically conservative church from old "prejudices" that should have long ago been "jettisoned," forcing it into "rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity," in the words of a recent writer in The New York Times. Homosexuality must be removed from the "sin list" and, according to an MSNBC commentator, traditional marriage proponents must be forced "to do things they don't want to do." Sadly, this crusade will be like the Marxist "liberation" movements that promised to "free" people, but really were about control and suppression. The culmination may come as the...

Slaughter On The Beach: ISIS Behead And Shoot Ethiopian Christians In Sickening New Propaganda Video Video seems to show militants in Libya holding one group of at least 16 captive on a beach and 12 others in a desert Before the killings a masked fighter in black brandishes a pistol as he vows to kill Christians if they do not convert Ethiopia unable to confirm its citizens were killed by militants in the footage but condemned the 'atrocious act' It comes two months after 21 Egyptian Christians were beheaded by extremists in a similar video from Libya By LYDIA WILLGRESS...

The 29-minute video, titled 'Until It Came To Them - Clear Evidence', shows dozens of militants holding two separate groups captive, thought to be in the south and the west of the country. At least 16 men, described by Islamic State as the 'followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church', are lined up and shot in a desert area while 12 others are filmed being forced to walk down a beach before being beheaded.

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Nuaman suffered burns covering more than 55 percent of his body. Two local young Muslims going for Friday prayers to their mosque in Pakistan's Lahore city beat up and set fire to a 14-year-old Christian boy after stopping him and asking his religious affiliation, according to a Christian group.The victim, identified only as Nuaman, is being treated at Meo Hospital in Lahore in Punjab province, according to a Christian group, The Voice Society, in Pakistan. He has burns covering more than 55 percent of his body.The Christian boy was coming from a tailor's shop when he was attacked. It was...

Columnist George Will points out that Apple’s openly gay CEO, Tim Cook, “…thinks Indiana is a terrible place. (But) He opened marketing and retail operations in Saudi Arabia two months before a man was sentenced to 450 lashes for being gay.” Will was commenting on Cook’s recent Washington Post op-ed protesting Indiana’s new, now amended, Religious Freedom Restoration Act and similar initiatives around the country. World Magazine reports that Cook has recently been in the United Arab Emirates negotiating on behalf of Apple, where homosexuality is against the law and the penalty is death. Cook’s duplicity is not just in...

The first ad released by the Ted Cruz campaign, titled "Blessing," boldly proclaims the Senator's Christian faith, Truth Revolt reported Sunday. The ad, released over the Easter weekend, also sparked a great deal of anti-Christian hatred and bigotry. "Cruz keep religion out of politics you nut," one person commented. "I can't tell if you're running for preacher or president." "What I love about this the most is that this illiterate christian freak thinks it can win in a general election," another person said, refusing to refer to Cruz as a human being. "Troll me all you want, illiterate christian (sic)...

Jesus called for His people to take up their cross and follow Him. For Middle East Christians, the cross is a reality. Christians are being crucified. As we observe Good Friday and the beginning of Passover, safe with our families, and as we celebrate Easter in the security of our churches, millions of Christians face persecution not seen since the early Church. Beheadings, crucifixions, and staged mass executions are abhorrently commonplace – on display for the world to see. Radical Islamic jihadists are targeting and terrorizing Christians throughout the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. This persecution cannot be ignored. It...

Recent video of 21 orange-clad Egyptian Christians being simultaneously beheaded by ISIS thugs – along with a steady stream of other horrifying reports of their crucifying, decapitating and burying Christians alive, including children – have shocked the world. But while ISIS is unquestionably a nightmare-come-true, when it comes to the alarming increase in Christian persecution worldwide the “Islamic State” is just the tip of the iceberg. As WND’s acclaimed Whistleblower magazine reveals in its powerfully moving April issue, “PERSECUTION RISING,” today’s treatment of Christians in a great many nations is disturbingly reminiscent of the brutal persecution of the early followers...

Al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group responsible for yesterday’s deadly attack on a prominent Mogadishu hotel, has released a graphic new video showing executions of unarmed civilians – identified as Christians by the AhlulBayt News Agency – at an unnamed location on the Somali coast. Some of victims in the video titled ‘In Remembrance 2,’ are forced to kneel at the ocean’s edge before being shot to death from behind. Others are marched out into the sea, with jihadists standing on an elevated sand dune at the beach’s edge firing automatic weapons at them in the distance. Water splashes as bullets...

I can’t get this question out of my head: Who is Patricia Jannuzzi? These last few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of religious organizations publicly wrestling with gay rights. The Mormon Church authorized new protections for gay people, while attempting to protect religious believers, too. A rapidly dwindling denomination of Presbyterians decided to embrace gay marriage. San Francisco’s City Church, the largest evangelical megachurch, embraced gay marriage for its congregants. Cardinal Dolan was the grand marshal of the first St. Patrick’s Day parade that permitted people to march with LGBT banners. Some of these churches are discarding ancient Christian moral...

400 crosses have been removed and 35 buildings destroyed in Zhejiang province since 2013China’s central government has ordered an end to a demolition campaign that targeted churches in Zhejiang province, according to a senior official of the state-sanctioned Catholic Church. Bishop Paul Meng Qinglu of Inner Mongolia, a vice-chair of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, said he heard the news during a recent religious meeting in Beijing. “Church leaders across China had complained about the demolitions over the past year,” he told ucanews.com. Bishop Meng said the orders to end the demolition campaign were supposed to have taken effect “early...